"IF A BULLFROG HAD WINGS , , , "

" . . . he wouldn't bump his tail on the ground !"   

Or, so a wise man  often told me as I was growing up.  (And, have you noticed that a "wise man" differs greatly from a  "wise guy" ?)  The 'wise man' in this case was my dad, Frank.  And that was just one  among many of the wise aphorisms he  passed on to his sons.  After his death, I complied a list of "Frank-ism's" to share with  our extended family.

    Theses are among the more memorable of his 'sayings':

  . "You aren't going to learn any younger son." [When we would protest that we  didn't know how to do a task.]

  ."The world doesnot revolve around you."

  ."Don't wish your time away son."

  ."Boy, you ask more questions that a Philadelphia lawyer."

    But the one above seems to have more applicability these days and  not just in our family where it has been passed on to the next generations.

My daughter who began painting whimsical chicks as a way to raise funds for cancer research and patients sent me the  above 'frog' as a Father's  Day gift.  As she explained it in her 'Chicks4aCause' page, dad's wise words live on:

One of my brothers remembered that mom expressed a similar sentiment: " 'if' is  the biggest little word in the English language."

   Several years ago, a client provided yet another similar sentiment while describing how his life might have been different "if". . .  "If 'if's' and but's were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas."

   Someone claimed that  "if" expresses "forlorn regret" and another that it speaks of  unrealistic wish for better circumstances,  connections ,wealth,  wanting things different  and more advantageous.  I think Rudyard Kipling, one-time Poet Laureate of England, pointed to a loftier understanding, an ideal of dignity in a world of contentiousness.  His poem is a bit lengthy to include here but it is worth a read. "If" one overcomes several life challenges with dignity, then " you'll be a Man,  my son  !"  More inclusive understandings would say something like "you'll be a mature Adult, my friend".

  

     Sounds like a "Frank-ism" to me .

        Satchel

   

    

  

CUSSED CURSIVE, Or. "WHO WRITES LIKE THAT ?"

 

I

Over the blackboard in 3d grade classroom

"I can't read your handwriting.  What does that say?"

How many times I have heard that and wanted to say something like "that was  scribbled by my brother, the doctor" But that   would be unfair.  Pensmanship (as it was once   called) has never been my talent.  As part of my 'save that' penchant

I have all my public school report cards, beginning with the first one of 1944-45 school year.   In the second grade, I earned a year-end grade of C+ for my writing skills. Only occasionally thereafter did  that improve. (That was better than the X mark my 7th grade teacher gave for "laughs and talks quietly" !  Looking back, what makes that a social virtue ?! If you are going to laugh, why not a hearty belly-laugh ? But that for another time.)

"Cursive" . . . a dying art form, no longer taught in most public schools, meeting the fate of the slide rule. Over the blackboard in our elementary classrooms, forms like the picture above provided models for us to copy multiple times.   Take heart, You Tube offers videos on the how-to's of cursive. In addition to school teachers,there were lots of folks urging me to greater legibility. Dad had a beautiful flowing style and mom's was likewise distinctive. However, only  their youngest son's writing  has even a modicum of decipher-ability.  The middle son's profession of physician provides  him a socially acceptable justification for his 'hen scratching'.  My reasoning (some might say 'excuse') is that I spent too many years in academe, trying to take class notes while professors lectured like talking machine guns

Whatever the 'cause', when my writing becomes "cold", I often  struggle to read the script. Someone looking over my shoulder as I wrote, quipped "If you can't read it, take it to Revco (a once upon a time pharmacy) and they will fill it for you."

   With typewriters (remember those?) and now computers and word processors everywhere, my greatest challenge often is font styles changing without warning. Other art forms associated with cursive are on the brink of dinosaur-dom: the handwritten letter and for many the 

fountain pen. While I don't send many 'snail  mail' letters, I love writing with fountain pens. An undergrad professor in his thick accent instructed the class: "Ze dean has instructed that you fill out zis form withz your penten-found, er...fountain pen."

Write on !!

 Satchel